Clara Barton and the American Red Cross

Clara Barton: The Civil War and the American Red Cross

The importance of the American Red Cross to the United States of America nowadays is never underestimated due to the massive amount of miracles the agency has brought about during times of disaster. However, back in the late 1800s a woman named Clara Barton was having a significant amount of trouble trying to get the U.S. to form the Americanized version of the already operating foreign Red Cross. She was determined to establish a united American Red Cross to provide aid to not only war victims and families but to the ever growing population of disaster victims who were losing everything in times of crisis. From following cannons in the Civil War and going to the Geneva Convention to launching the Red Cross and providing relief until she died, Clara Barton quickly became one of the most influential American women of the 19th century.
Clarissa Harlowe Barton was born in Massachusetts on Christmas Day in 1821, almost as if she was a present sent from Christ himself. She was the last of five children and her parents Stephen and Sarah Barton were extremely strong willed people setting up Clara with a much needed inherited characteristic. Her father was a war veteran who instilled discipline in the children resulting in them being very studious and active. Clara had a huge appetite for work and recognition and was never really happy unless she faced some kind of difficult challenge. She was constantly standing up to people and wouldn’t let anybody push her around, especially because she was a woman. For example, while other women activists were committed to causes of abolition or educational reform or female suffrage, Barton went for more male dominated preserves: the federal bureaucracy and the world of war (Burton, 1995).
After Clara left her current job of teaching for a little bit due to illness, she soon started noticing changes around her city as well as the country. “She saw the North shocked and...